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YOUTH ALL WHITES TO FACE TWO-TIME CHAMPIONS FIRST UPAuckland
New Zealand will face two-time winners Portugal, African bronze mediallists Gambia and feared North American contenders Mexico in Group C of the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup in Canada this July. The Oceania champions will open their maiden FIFA Youth World Championship campaign against 1989 and 1991 champions and 1995 bronze medialists Portugal on July 2 before a July 5 date with Gambia, also in Toronto. Stu Jacobs’ side will then relocate to Edmonton for their final group stage match against Mexico who are one of the favoured teams for Canada after winning the last FIFA U-17 World Championship in Peru in 2005. “Whatever group we were going to be in was going to be tough but we’re delighted with this,” Jacobs said from Toronto’s Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex where he attended Saturday’s (Sunday morning NZT) official draw with NZ Soccer High Performance Manager Ricki Herbert. “We’re just delighted to be here in the first place and to get Portugal first up is a bit of a result for us. We need to find out about Gambia and then Mexico are going to be tough…they’re being touted as one of the stronger teams here after winning the last U-17 World Cup.” Jacobs and Herbert will remain in Toronto for an inspection of stadium, training and hotel facilities and will also chase warm-up matches against other competing nations. A three-match tour of South America next month is already on the drawing broad. “If we can get four or five good games under our belt we’d be on our way, it would be fantastic,” said Jacobs who reiterated his determination to see New Zealand advance beyond the group stage of a World Cup for the first time despite their tricky draw. New Zealand Soccer chief executive Graham Seatter described New Zealand’s draw as “great” and “exciting”. “To get a European team, one from Concacaf [North and Central America and the Caribbean] and one from Africa is a great variety. They’re all going to be tough but that’s what we expected and what an experience for our guys,” Seatter said. New Zealand’s first two matches will be played at Toronto’s new 20,000-seater National Soccer Stadium at Exhibition Place which is still under construction ahead of hosting 12 matches at Canada ’07, including the final. The state-of-the-art venue will then be used as the home of the Major League Soccer’s newest expansion franchise Toronto FC - who have All Whites defender Andy Boyens on their books - after the World Cup. The match against Gambia will be played in Edmonton’s 59,500-seater Commonwealth Stadium where Seatter represented New Zealand in race walking in 1978. More than 500,000 tickets were sold before the draw, making the tournament the biggest single-code sporting event in Canada's history. Meanwhile, Sunday’s draw threw up some fascinating matches and groupings for the biennial world youth showpiece - the second largest FIFA competition – to be staged between June 30-July 22 at six venues across Canada. Former Olympic sprint gold medallist Donovan Bailey was on stage as a series of mouth-watering matches were drawn out of the pots including hosts Canada facing Chile in Toronto, USA drawing Brazil in Ottawa, favourites Spain facing Uruguay in Burnaby, while Portugal will battle it out with Mexico in a Group C clash in Toronto. New Zealand's Group C draw: July 2 v Portugal, National Soccer Stadium, Toronto
Pictures courtesy: FIFA/David Lucas.
Group A (Toronto, Edmonton):
Group B (Burnaby, Victoria):
Group C (Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton):
Group D (Montreal, Ottawa):
Group E (Ottawa, Montreal):
Group F (Victoria, Burnaby):
LUCK OF THE DRAW - OFFICIAL DRAW PREVIEW Auckland
New Zealand might be one of the minnows at this year’s FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup in Canada but coach Stu Jacobs is clearly thinking big ahead of Sunday’s official draw in Toronto. “It would be nice to get to the second round whatever teams we meet in the group stage,” said Jacobs who will join NZ Soccer High Performance Manager Ricki Herbert at Sunday’s ceremony at the Liberty Grand Entertainment Centre. “You probably wouldn’t want to be in a group with Brazil. Portugal and Spain but it doesn’t really matter…we’d like to think we won’t get rolled and bowled whoever we get.” New Zealand will learn which of the six group venues - Burnaby, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria - they will be based at following Sunday’s draw at 10.30am NZT. Jacobs hopes a proposed South American warm-up tour scheduled for April will be confirmed shortly. “We want to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to progress over the next three to four months. We’re not far off it but if we can get to South America it will give us a gauge of exactly where we’re at.” One thing Jacobs is slowly coming to grips with is the share scale of FIFA’s second biggest tournament. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) have already pre-sold more than 500,000 tickets for the June 30-July 22 World Cup – making it the biggest single-code sporting event in Canada’s history. Even Jacobs is staggered by that figure as the makeup of the six, four-team groups will not be determined until Sunday’s draw. “They’ve still got four months to go haven’t they…it’s going to be enormous,” Jacobs said. “It’s hard for anybody to get a grasp on that until we get there. Our guys wouldn’t have been to anything close to this magnitude…it’s certainly something that’s going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.” Visit www.nzsoccer.com on Sunday for full coverage of Sunday’s draw and reaction to New Zealand’s draw.
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FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup - Canada - June 30-July 22, 2007 
Participating nations